Patterson-White preferred over Bashir and Leach for England’s tour of South Africa

London, 9 November 2026:

Nottinghamshire spinner Liam Patterson-White has been given his maiden call-up in the 15-man squad to South Africa as the only front-line spin option as the ECB announced Test squad for three matches against South Africa.

Recently handed a Development Contract by the ECB, Patterson-White was selected ahead of Shoaib Bashir and Jack Leach after his 42-wicket season in the County Championship which led amongst spinners.

This selection comes days after South African spinner Simon Harmer said on the Sky Sports Cricket podcast that 35-year-old Leach was the best spin option in the country, having taken 36 wickets at 20.22 this season, with a superior average, economy, and strike-rate to Patterson-White.

England Men’s National Selector Marcus North, talking to journalists on Monday regarding Patterson-White’s selection, said: “We were looking for someone to spin the ball away from the right-hander and Liam has got some great attributes. There’s a lot of consistency with him and we feel that’s matured over the last two seasons at Nottingham.”

North also valued Patterson-White’s ability with the bat, pointing to the potential pitches they will face in Johannesburg and Centurion in particular: “We’ve got two Tests in Highveld which is slightly different to what Australia had. Highveld tends to not spin as much, but we feel we’ve got that balance within our squad that if we didn’t select a specialist spinner we’ve got plenty of options towards the back end of the game that could support four quicks.”

The squad selection marked the first time that Shoaib Bashir has been left out of a Test squad since his debut, despite being offered a Central Contract less than a month ago. He will instead tour with the England Lions who will play two four-day games and three 50-over matches. The Lions squad also includes Brydon Carse who makes his first squad since being charged by the Cricketing Regulator after an off-pitch incident.

The batting line-up remains more of a mystery, with Jacob Bethell returning from a knee injury. It begs the questions as to whether Jordan Cox or Emilio Gay will miss out, despite the two showing good signs against Pakistan in the 3-0 series victory.

“That’s going to be a difficult decision” said North. “We know we’ve got a number of different options and balances we can go with. We’ll use that time between now and the first Test to make sure we look at the surface, where players are tracking in terms of their prep, and make the decision we feel is right for the best XI for that Test.”

Joe Root will be aiming to repeat his success from 2020, where he captained the most recent team to win away in South Africa. This time however, they are facing the No.1 Test side in the world and current holders of the World Test Championship, full of confidence having just beaten Australia 2-1.